Been catching and cleaning a lot of fish to try and thin the herd before hot weather. Moving some SMB from the SMB/RES pond to the main pond as we reduce the numbers of HBG and CC out of the main pond.
Wife found a good way to process fish. The small pin bones in the BG after filleting she always just tried to pick them out before frying. Since she has been canning some fish, now she just cuts that skirt of the fillet off. That leaves what I would describe as the tenderloin if it were a hog. A perfect boneless fish stick. Then she takes the skirt of the fillet and instead of picking or cutting the bones out, just puts them in the canning jars and cans that portion. The bones come out soft and edible after the pressure canning process just like sardine bones.
Canned BG is really delicious. One of our favorite ways is to take a pint jar of our canned BG, add one tin of sardines in olive oil, add one tine of Kipper Snacks smoked herring, dill pickle relish, mustard and some times some mayo and capers. Fish salad (think tuna salad). Sometimes chop up a couple boiled eggs in it too.
Along with a bag of pork rinds makes a great keto/low carb lunch for two. Very tasty. The little bit of smoke taste from the Kippers and the oily sardines really adds to the taste of the otherwise very mild canned BG.
Tried canning some CC but will not do that again. The CC just breaks down into kind of mush. Not enough structure of the meat. But the canned BG turns out very much like the consistency of canned tuna. We will continue to just freeze the CC for fresh consumption.
I figure with the cost of feed, pond construction, aeration and maintenance we have estimated about a thousand dollars a pound in our delicious fish. But hey, who's counting.
